Even some of the cruise industry’s harshest critics concede there is economic benefit to having a big ship pull into port.

The crucial part, they say, is for cities to be aware of the impacts and to mitigate those costs up front.

Joseph Geldhof is an Alaska attorney who has written some of the most stringent environmental laws for cruise ships and developed state law to establish a passenger fee to offset environmental and infrastructure costs of cruises. He offered this recommendation during a Charleston conference on cruise tourism:

“Don’t get to the point you’re saying ‘Don’t come,’” he said. “‘You’re saying ‘Come here, but come on our terms.’”

Cities have to consider expenses such as increased traffic and security and not just at the beginning of the partnership, said Ross Klein, a professor at Memorial University, Newfoundland, who has studied and written extensively about the cruise industry.

“I think any local community needs to think about what it’s going to cost in order for cruise ships to grow and be part of our community,” he said.Some of the key factors:

Job creation

An analysis developed for the city of Savannah is crafted largely from regional economic indicators and a study on cruise spending by John Crotts, professor of hospitality and tourism management at the College of Charleston. He has analyzed cruise passenger and crew spending with economist Frank Hefner since 2010.

BEA, the Miami firm that did the economic analysis for Savannah, estimated in the first year of operation that Savannah’s metro area, which includes Bryan, Chatham and Effingham counties, would have a total economic benefit of $25 million, an area labor income of $10.4 million and an area employment of 330.

Most of the employment would be lower-paying service and retail jobs, a point opponents often cite.

Pam Miller, co-founder of Be Smart Savannah, a community group dedicating itself to the cruise discussion, is among Savannah residents who question why the city should risk investing tens of millions of dollars in a terminal, especially when a cruise line could pull out with little or no notice.

“Think what this city could do if it invested that money in job training,” she said.

Passenger and crew spending

Cruise companies routinely use their economic impact as bargaining chips with city governments and port authorities to get rent, embarkation fees or other assessments waived, but industry observers say the projections rarely match actual spending.

Crotts believes his studies of Charleston’s cruise activity make a case for strong spending. Over the years, he said, they have realized crew spending tends to be higher than passenger spending. He estimated average passenger spending was $66 a day and for crew was $70 a day in 2010, and his study for the South Carolina State Ports Authority put total economic impact at $37 million.

Another study, commissioned by the Historic Charleston Foundation, says the city sees a fraction of that benefit.

Harry Miley, president of the Miley Association economic consulting firm, has conducted 15 separate impact studies on cruise spending and said the average from those studies shows per-passenger spending from a cruise traveler is about $61 per night.

“When they stay here over night, they spend 14 times as much as when they’re here on a cruise,” Miley said.

Stocking the ship

Savannah officials have been assured the local economy would benefit because the cruise ship would buy supplies locally.

Not the case, Miley and Klein said.

Just like any other major corporation, they buy in bulk and ship in supplies, said Miley, who praised the cruise industry’s effectiveness.

“They make FedEx look like a bumbling bunch of idiots,” he said.

The cruise lines do bring up the majority of supplies from Florida warehouses, Crotts said, but they rely on Charleston vendors for some services and supplies, whether it’s for pumping wastewater, resupplying drinking water, delivering fresh flowers or renting tuxedos for on-board weddings.

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